Ron W. Bailey

There are many people whose hard work and creativity makes the Moisture Festival happen but there is one without whom it wouldn’t have been an option. Ron W. Bailey is an entertainer, band leader, singer, songwriter, and a Maker. He makes things happen. His visit to one of Berlin’s two Comedy/Varietè festivals in the 1990s inspired this unique contribution to Seattle’s musical and theatrical landscape.

Ron’s romance with Seattle began … but wait … let me allow Seattle songsmith Jim Page to tell it:
“Anyway, in ’74 along comes Rose and The Dirt Boys – they’re out of Oklahoma and they just moved right in and made themselves at home. You could do that here in those days, it was that generous. Well, one of the brains of the dirt boys was Ron Bailey, or RB as they called him. A compact little Scots Okie with a great voice and an unstoppable mind for invention. He began collecting talented friends. He became kind of a magnet around which a lot of interesting people revolved. When The Dirt Boys broke up RB went on to the Dynamic Logs – a band that was larger or smaller depending on the circumstances. And that’s when things began to get real theatrical.

Anyway, making long stories shorter … The Royal Famille Du Caniveaux was born somewhere in there, involving strange shadowy figures in Spain and Paris and New York, and they all started going to the Oregon Country Fair. So did a lot of jugglers and magicians and dancers and singers and all the rest. The Flying Karamazov Brothers, Tom Noddy, Faith Petric. So It was a natural progression if you look at it that way. It just had to happen. And where else [but Seattle] could it have been?”

Ron … Seattle and the Varietè performers you’ve brought to this pretty city thank you again.